But Pardew admits he would not be scared to cash in if he felt selling one of his prized assets could provide him with the cash to strengthen the team.

It was feared that failure to earn promotion to Division 1, and the loss of an estimated £2million in television money, might force Royals' boss to sell one of his highly-rated strike duo in a bid to balance the books.

But Howe said: "We are under no pressure to sell players and we would resist offers for Martin and Jamie or any other players.

"We feel we've got a good squad that,with a bit of tinkering, can go up next year."

Pardew is also keen to keep hold of a strike-force that rattled in 59 goals between them. But should he receive any multi-million bids for the pair, or any other player, then he would not hesitate to do business if he could use the money to strengthen.

He said: "The situation is simple. We've had a fantastic year, but we've got nothing to show for it.

"But I'm not going to say ‘That's it. Let's move sideways'. That would be a mistake. We must move forward and if we got rid of players like Butts then that's not moving forward."

However, he warned: "If the price was right and I could replace them and strengthen another area that would be a different scenario. I wouldn't hesitate to do that."

Cureton is desperate to play at a higher level and was left in tears following Sunday's 3-2 defeat by Walsall in the promotion play-off final.

The striker has plundered 31 goals this season, despite carrying a groin injury for the final third of the season, and he will go under the knife tomorrow.

But Cureton insists he is willing to help Royals clinch promotion next season.

He said: "It's difficult to accept having to play Division 2 football again.

"We will have to play the likes of Blackpool and Colchester again, and with no disrespect to them you want to be going to Nottingham Forest and Sheffield Wednesday, so it is very disappointing.

"Missing out on promotion is a massive blow. We had geared ourselves all season to going up and to have it taken away like that in the space of a minute is really hard to take.

"We are all very keen to push our careers and play at a higher level. We had it in our own hands and let it slip and we are all so disappointed.

"I've got two years left on my contract and I'm preparing to come back in pre-season for another season in Division 2."

Pardew will have very little money to strengthen the team and may feel he has to sell in order to buy.

Howe added: "As far as I'm concerned there is no budget for players as we are still Division 2.

"In terms of bringing in players on transfers the budget has yet to be set. But it will not allow us to pay substantial fees so that will leave us maybe bringing in a couple of players on Bosmans."

As revealed in the Evening Post Notts County's Andy Hughes and Peterborough's Jason Lee are top targets.

Hughes is out of contract but because he is under the age of 24, he would command a fee which would be set by an FA tribunal.